UGA named best value college by The Princeton Review

A picture of the Arch in the sunlight with the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building in the background.

The University of Georgia has been named one of the nation’s best for providing excellent education and career preparation at a great value, according to The Princeton Review.

The education services company chose schools for the 2024 list based on data from its surveys of administrators at more than 650 colleges. Topics covered in those surveys included academic strength, cost, financial aid, graduation rates, and student debt.

The company also surveyed students attending the schools and considered data from PayScale.com’s surveys of alumni about their starting and mid-career salaries and job satisfaction. Based on these responses, The Princeton Review gave UGA a return on investment score of 92 out of 99.

“I am pleased that the University of Georgia is being recognized as one of the nation’s best values in higher education,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “We are setting new standards for excellence across so many areas of our institution thanks to the extraordinary caliber of our faculty, staff and students combined with strong support from our alumni and friends.”

In addition to the best value designation, UGA placed in the top 20 on The Princeton Review’s lists of high-achieving public universities. UGA ranked No. 9 for the best alumni network; No. 11 for access to financial aid; No. 13 for the best value public universities; and No. 16 for internship placement.

In September, UGA ranked in the top 20 among the nation’s best public universities for the eighth consecutive year, according to U.S. News & World Report. UGA ranked No. 47 nationally among all universities.

The University of Georgia Jere W. Morehead Honors College was recently ranked the No. 1 honors program or college in the nation by College Transitions, publishers of the best-selling guide, Colleges Worth Your Money.

In the last academic year, Honors student Mariah Cady was one of only 32 students nationwide named a 2024 Rhodes Scholar, marking the second year in a row that a UGA student has won the honor. UGA is one of only five public universities in the U.S., in addition to the nation’s service academies, to have a Rhodes recipient this year, and UGA has been a top 3 producer of Rhodes Scholars among public institutions for the last 30 years.

These and other recent honors have made the University of Georgia a popular choice for new college students. UGA received more than 43,000 applications and a record 26,760 early action applications for next fall’s incoming class and more than 43,090 applications overall.

UGA continues to elevate its academic offerings and student support programs — including a growing active learning initiative, a variety of First-Year Odyssey courses and peer-to-peer mentoring — resulting in record achievements by its students. The university has a four-year completion rate of 75% and six-year completion rate of 88%, well above many peer institutions. Of UGA’s Class of 2022 graduates, 96% were employed or continuing their education within six months of graduation.